Blood and Sugar
by DrinkingAlcoholicRainbows
Summary: Once upon a time, when I was still a boy, I thought I would never die. But the heroes...they always died in the end. What happened to you, blood and sugar? :: AU!Mark of Athena, character death, angst. Chapter Two is an explanation chapter. I repeat, Chapter Two is an explanation chapter.
1. Blood and Sugar

The fight was brutal.

In full Greek battle armor, one warrior held down her fear. Which was a lot, considering what could and_ would_ happen in this war. Who knows what would happen? Who knows who will die? She screamed as she took down a hissing dracaena. She's been screaming a lot lately. She's slowly been going insane. All the possibilities…they make her head hurt.

Her only distraction was the clanging of swords, the monster dust, all the blood and all the pain. This was more than just a battlefield; this is where you slash and hack and stab and hurt to kill or be killed. Somehow that makes her brain work again.

"No, no, _no_!" A part of her screams. It's the part that's still just a little girl. That little lost girl on the streets. It's the part that doesn't exist anymore, what she _wishes_ doesn't exist anymore. "This is not you. You are not a killer. You are not a murderer. You are–"

Then suddenly everything was numb.

And she's screaming, she's shouting, for help, please help, I can't feel anything, I can't breathe, why is this happening to me, help, everything is numb, why is everything numb, what is happening to me, and her mind is in a scramble, she was on overdrive and then it hits her.

_"Once they swear loyalty to me, they are indeed immortal… unless they fall in battle."_

She can't help a bitter smile at that. She wasn't immortal. She never was, really. Just half. She already fell in battle. Being immortal was out. Never. Na-da. She never even thought about it. It wasn't in her string. She could've been, though. She could've been. Long ago.

She falls to the ground and watches the blood corrupt the grass.

"Thalia," someone calls. It sounds so far away…and she's drifting, she's drifting, drifting…it feels so good to die, she thinks. It feels so good to finally let go. In that moment she doesn't let her smile falter. She was once a happy girl, she thinks. But that was over but she's still the same. She was still her. She was still–

_"Thalia!"_

Her head hits the ground and her body doesn't move an inch.

* * *

Slash. Stab. Deflect. Kill. Step back. Turn around. Repeat.

It was in his blood, he realizes. His father…he always used to take lives away, and not care for it. He winces for a bit, breaking the pattern for a while, and then he drowns back in it. There was a time when he thought he couldn't do this, you know. Back when he was still just a kid. Back when he was still innocent.

Oh, how time and war can change that, he laughs. Little darling, with your blood full of sugar, did you know you'll be seeing the other kinds of sugar too? Isn't it sweet, isn't it delicious?

And now he's crazy and now he's insane. He doesn't know that, not yet, of course. But he watches the crimson liquid stain the blade and somehow that's a factor. He's screaming. He always has. He was always a tiny bit angry at everything and a tiny bit screaming at everything because of everything and–by gods, he's going _**mad**_.

There was once a girl, he thinks. She used to hold me and she told me she loved me. She used to hide me from the monsters. She used to hide me from the dark. She used to love me. Where was she?

Now he's really screaming. His thoughts come in stutters.

Blade. Crimson. Blood. Numb? Hurts. I-I can see it…Sword? Pain. Screaming. Alone. Girl. Dead. Is she? Am I? Fall. Grass. Red. Not green. Red.

_I am dying._

And that's what breaks him. That's the kicker. Because really? After everything? He fought titans, he fought monsters, he fought giants, he sailed a flying ship from California to the entire world to Rome and to Greece. He can feel it too, she's dying too. And now he's screaming, not from pain, _never from pain_, but the thought of him dying seems so surreal. He was going to be gone. Just like that. After all of that.

_Once upon a time_, he thinks. _When I was just a boy, I thought I would never die._

He doesn't feel the blood dribbling from his mouth; he doesn't remember his knees giving way. Numb. Just numb. That was it.

_The heroes…they always die in the end. What happened to you, blood and sugar?_

He watched the crimson stain the green, then he fell.

* * *

_"Oh my gods."_

"We can still save them! Hazel's a Daughter of Pluto, we can still–"

"No. No we can't."

One girl sobs on another boy's shoulder, and the other runs off. They can all hear her shout "Unfair!" in a broken voice before she stalks out of the room, and they all feel their heart break a little more as she makes sure to slam the door shut.

"She's right," someone says, the one who was wetting her boyfriend's shirt, "We already lost one of our leaders, and one of our allies. One of our friends. What hope do we have–?"

"We have a lot of hope!" One boy laughs, but it's marred by his red eyes and everyone notices. "We still do. We plough on, we keep on surviving, because that's what we do, okay? They, him, her, both of them, they didn't die in vain! We still have…"

"No we don't!"

"Yes we do!" He shouts. "Alright? We, we gotta keep moving. That's what they would've wanted us to do. They would've wanted us to kick some giant butt and some earth goddess butt, and they would've wanted us to win. They would've wanted us to live. Okay?"

A few mutterings here and there, and quietly, he hears them close their doors.

_Let them boil it over, let it sink in,_ he thinks. He goes to his quarters and flops to his canopy. _After all, I still haven't…_

* * *

Weeks later, when they go back to camp, she sees that the passing of two of their campers leaves them in a severe grief.

Of course they do, she thinks. Both of them were the camp leaders. They basically held the camp together. It's like they lost their older siblings.

She sees Mr. D drink more and more Coke than normal, and Chiron shut himself out even more. She sees the dryads turn yellow and naiads drown anyone who dares swim in the lake, she sees the pegasi squirm and the satyrs grow cold. A leaf just fell from her tree. The flowers wilt. The sky is gray. And the sea is in a rage. It's been raining.

The gods have been mourning too. She doesn't whether to clap or cry.

Crying, oh, she's familiar with it by now. They left such an impact on the world, they'll go to Elysium for sure. A pale boy clad in all black confirms this.

"They're happy," he says, then he merges back into the shadows.

He's sad too, she realizes. He's paler than usual.

That's when she thinks, that yes, they did make an impact. A big one.

* * *

They hold the funeral two days later at sunset.

The Hephaestus cabin put a lot of work into the shrouds. They made sure they were almost shining. They made sure they were special. They made sure they were golden, unforgettable, and every single bit of brilliant and beautiful as they could.

Just like the people they encased.

* * *

"S-She was like a star. She always wanted to be one, you know. Like, like the constellations. She used to tell me, 'Hey, hey. When I grow up, I'm going to be a star. I'm going to shine, one day.'

"And she did, gods, she did. She was beautiful, wasn't she? Yeah, she was. Smart, too. She was at the top of her game, like nothing was going to stop her. Nothing did. Not…Not until that day when it did.

"It was really stupid, now that I think about it. I mean, she died of a spear through her stomach. She could've died of explosions, drowning, eaten by monsters, burned alive…and she went by spear. It was pathetic. The least she could've done was have a dramatic exit, right?

"She deserved the best, even in the end. She deserved it. She wouldn't have wanted it but…to me, and to a lot of people, she did. She shined, she did. Like a star. I wish I could tell her that."

* * *

"We didn't have a great start, not at first.

"Yeah, it was stupid. I mean, how could you not like him? He was an overall great guy with awesome powers, and yes, good looks. He was also real nice and caring and while I never understood girls, I guess I could understand what they saw in him. Who wouldn't?

"Answer: me. And I wish I could go back in time and slap myself for being such an idiot. For not befriending him, for being jealous of him, for not saving him. I would go back and change it all if I could. Gods damn it, I would. I would.

"But I resented him. He just seemed so nice, it was practically inhuman. To me, I mean. It was also the fact that he was only awake for a week and he gets the Romans' trust so easily and…yeah, I was jealous. But back then, I was convinced it was hate. And I don't think he hated me, he just played along. Kinda annoying how friendly he is.

"You know what changed? It wasn't when we were kicking monster butt, or giant butt, or any butt at all. We were sitting under the stars, at deck, and we just…talked. About the things we did, about our adventures, about–about us. About how scared we were.

"That's when I realized he was just human. Like me. But in a way, he wasn't. Gods no, he wasn't.

"He was special. He was bigger than me. Or any of us. He was special and…and I wish I could tell him that. It just didn't seem like he knew, didn't he? It's…yeah. I wish I could turn back time and tell him that."

* * *

When they burned the shrouds, they smelt lemons and sea breeze. At that point, all of their eyes were misty.

When they were having dinner, all of them raised their goblets in remembrance.

_To the Heroes of Olympus._

* * *

"Hey."

They turned. What they saw was a spiffy man in an expensive Italian suit. His name tag read…

"Chiron?" He asked, "Your name is Chiron?"

The other man grinned at the couple. "Charon. But good enough, young lad. Good enough. Now get in and go to Elysium, you lot. Get married. Have fun. If you see your uncle, go say hi. He missed you."

"What?" she exclaimed.

Charon grinned even more. "Perseus Jackson and Annabeth Chase. Admission Accepted. Now get in the boat, I'll personally escort you there.

"Both of you are a special pair, you know?"

* * *

**A/N: So it's an hour past midnight and I spent the last-what?-two hours working on this. Huh. Hope you like it, guys! Or cried. Or reviewed. That would be nice too. Do my insomnia some justice, guys. Come on.**


	2. Blood and Sugar: The Explanation

This is an explanation post for the confused readers. To be fair, I've always wanted to do this, so thanks to_ im awesome. deal with it_ for the opportunity. Here we go, guys!

* * *

The entire point of this story was the similarities between Jason and Thalia, and Percy and Annabeth. It was _meant_ to confuse you, because if the only thing you can hear was the thoughts with no way to tell one from the other, you'll find the similarities just too much to handle.

Okay, we got that part covered. But you're probably thinking, "What about that Artemis quote at the start of the story?" Alright; so maybe you aren't, but just go with it. But yeah. If I remember correctly:

1) Neither Annabeth nor Thalia was there at that scene.

2) Artemis is a thousand years old...times three.

and 3) When they were on the run, Luke, Thalia and Annabeth ran into the Hunters. Then the Hunters tried to recruit them.

See, this is the thing. If anything, the speech Zoe and Artemis give to convince Bianca is the _same speech they give to every girl they want to recruit_. After a thousand years, they probably memorized the thing.

But the quote wasn't part of the speech. Bianca asked a question to get that answer. Same thing with Annabeth. As a Daughter of Athena, she is naturally curious and wants to know everything. It is entirely possible that she asked the same question, and got the same answer.

But what about ""Thalia," someone calls?"

This is the part where Annabeth goes lucid, and is already half-dead. Her brain is already stopping, and she can't recognize that the voice is, actually, her own. She's still calling for help, any help, and calls for the one person she depended on for everything when she was younger, even if she isn't there. She probably doesn't even understand what she was saying, or that she was saying anything at all.

As she was calling for "the one person she depended on for everything when she was younger," it was just a part that proved that she was also in a childlike state of thinking. I remember that part clearly when my father was dying himself.

* * *

So that was Annabeth and Thalia's part. As for Percy and Jason's, it isn't all that confusing. But if you're looking to an explanation on why Percy went insane, here's one:

This was his life for four years: Slash. Stab. Deflect. Kill. Step back. Turn around. Repeat. He was fighting for a fourth of his life. It got to him. He wanted to scream. But he couldn't, and it unhinged him. Little by little. Once he realized that the only distraction he had from the fighting was the fighting itself, he lost himself in it. He forgot himself, he forgot Annabeth, he forgot what he used to be. But the thing is; a small part of him still did. That small part still remembered that he used to be a hero, that he used to be loved, and this is the part that surfaces and reminds him of the girl.

"There was once a girl, he thinks. She used to hold me and she told me she loved me. She used to hide me from the monsters. She used to hide me from the dark. She used to love me. Where was she?"

If I was talking about Jason, he would be thinking about Thalia and how she used to hide him from their drunken mother. But I'm not. The subject here is Percy, and he's thinking about two girls in particular:

1) His mom. When he was younger, she used to hold him and rock him to sleep. She used to kiss his head and whisper "I love you," to him every night. She used to hide him from the typical monsters that every kid is scared of, and the Greek monsters that he would later kill in the future. She used to hide him from the dark, which every kid is scared of.

And 2) Annabeth. She held his hand they whispered that they love each other, till death do they part. They used to save each other's butt from monsters every day. She used to keep him sane, from snapping, from giving up, from the dark. She used to love him. But she loved the funny, sarcastic, obtuse and charming Percy. Not the warrior with a heart of stone.

Then that's it. That's the end. Good-bye, sayonara, au revoir. He's gone.

* * *

So let's talk about the mystery guys and girls who remained anonymous for the entirety of the fic, although you probably figured all of them out. Just in case some didn't, here they are:

"They can all hear her shout "Unfair!" in a broken voice," - It was Piper. She looked up to Annabeth and Percy and thought of them as her older siblings. Their death broke her a little bit, but she's always been a tiny bit broken since Jason remembered Reyna and went after her.

""She's right," someone says, the one who was wetting her boyfriend's shirt," – Hazel. As the Daughter of Pluto and the only one of them who has actually died already (Yes. Including Jason, because he was only mostly dead when Piper charm-spoke him back to life, and everybody knows that mostly dead also means partly alive.), she knows that feeling of helplessness when you realize it's the end and that nobody can save you.

"One boy laughs, but it's marred by his red eyes and everyone notices." – As the class clown, Leo feels like he should try and bring the spirits up. But he's also in grief, because like Piper, he thought of Percy and Annabeth as his older siblings. This is his way of dealing with it.

""No we don't!"" – Frank. As the Son of Mars, he knows in his gut that this is war, and that some measly attempt at motivational speaking won't be that helpful. This is war, and death happens. It's what happened to his mom.

Jason is silent for the duration of this conversation, because all he can think about is the times when he pushed Percy away, when they fought, and the times when he hated a guy who was just trying to survive. He's drowning in guilt, and he can't speak, because if he did he knew he'd start blubbering. And that's slightly embarrassing.

"She sees that the passing of two of their campers leaves them in a severe grief." – Thalia. She's been informed of the death of her two best friends, and Artemis allowed her to go back to camp for her to ease her mind. It was hard for her to deal with, and she went to the forest to sob where no one can see her.

"A pale boy clad in all black confirms this." – Nico, and I suppose everyone got that. But he absolutely refused to eat anything but blue food when his father told him about Percy and Annabeth's passing. He's not used to it, so he's whiter than usual.

"S-She was like a star." – Thalia again.

"We didn't have a great start, not at first." – Jason.

* * *

And that's it. I'm done. I hope all of you enjoyed my writing, and that your minds are a little clearer because of this explanation. Please review, even if it's just a simple "Thank You!" or "I love this fic!" because all of them really brighten up my day when I'm sad and want to curl up in a ball and cry my heart out.

But anyway, thank you for reading this as, like I said in a fic a year ago that "humans are lazy ass bastards." You guys have no idea how much your words mean to me. Like, I actually squeal and dance around when ever I get one. Seriously.

Until we meet again.

_DrinkingAlcoholicRainbows._


End file.
